Health Impact Assessment in New South Wales & Health in All Policies in South Australia: differences, similarities and connections
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Date
2014-07
Authors
Delany, Toni
Harris, Patrick
Williams, Carmel
Harris, E
Baum, Fran
Lawless, Angela Patricia
Wildgoose, Deborah
Haigh, F
MacDougall, Colin James
Broderick, D
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
BioMed Central
Rights
© 2014 Delany et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
Rights Holder
Delany et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
Abstract
Background:
Policy decisions made within all sectors have the potential to influence population health and equity.
Recognition of this provides impetus for the health sector to engage with other sectors to facilitate the
development of policies that recognise, and aim to improve, population outcomes. This paper compares the
approaches implemented to facilitate such engagement in two Australian jurisdictions. These are Health Impact
Assessment (HIA) in New South Wales (NSW) and Health in All Policies (HiAP) in South Australia (SA).
Methods:
The comparisons presented in this paper emerged through collaborative activities between stakeholders
in both jurisdictions, including critical reflection on HIA and HiAP practice, joint participation in a workshop, and the
preparation of a discussion paper written to inform a conference plenary session. The plenary provided an
opportunity for the incorporation of additional insights from policy practitioners and academics.
Results:
Comparison of the approaches indicates that their overall intent is similar. Differences exist, however, in
the underpinning principles, technical processes and tactical strategies applied. These differences appear to stem
mainly from the organisational positioning of the work in each state and the extent to which each approach is
linked to government systems.
Conclusions:
The alignment of the HiAP approach with the systems of the SA Government increases the likelihood
of influence within the policy cycle. However, the political priorities and sensitivities of the SA Government limit the
scope of HiAP work. The implementation of the HIA approach from outside government in NSW means greater
freedom to collaborate with a range of partners and to assess policy issues in any area, regardless of government
priorities. However, the comparative distance of HIA from NSW Government systems may reduce the potential for
impact on government policy. The diversity in the technical and tactical strategies that are applied within each
approach provides insight into how the approaches have been tailored to suit the particular contexts in which they
have been implemented.
Keywords:
Health in all policies, Health impact assessment, Healthy public policy
Description
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain
Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article,
unless otherwise stated.
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Citation
Delany et al. : Health Impact Assessment in New South Wales & Health in All Policies in South Australia: differences, similarities and connections. BMC Public Health 2014 14 :699.